Hobo Stew

Several of my friends saw a post on my Facebook page about how excited I was to use my new crock pot.  They were asking about it and what I cooked which must have been the kick in the pants to get  my blog going.  I have been wanting to blog for a long time and reserved my domain name months ago and never made time to get to it...well, here I am blogging about my crock pot.

I've had the same crock pot since we got married almost 13 years ago.  The last few months I have noticed it being "hotter" than what I thought it should be and then about 6 weeks ago my husband was washing it and broke the handle on the lid.  I cook with my crock pot several times a week during the winter so having to wrestle off the lid with hot pads was frustrating.  I have been wanting a new one since before Thanksgiving but just couldn't justify spending the money.  I really wanted one with the lock-down-lid so that when I haul food out to the cowboys during brandings and cow work it doesn't splash all over my car.  My new coffee pot broke (the one I bought special for when my in laws are here because they don't like drip coffee.)  Well, it broke so I returned it to the hardware store in town.  My lucky day!  They had a crock pot with the lock down lid and the difference between it and the coffee pot was only $4.  So I rummaged around in my bag and found four bucks and came home with my new crock pot.  Yippee!!! I secretly think being so excited about a new crock pot means my life is pathetic.  I mean, here I am writing about it on Facebook and then inspired enough to make it the topic of my first blog post.  No, I take that back...It means that I am so joyously happy that even the simple things in life are joyful to me!!

The whole point of that story was to share this recipe.  Ground Beef Hobo Stew from DeepSouthDish.com  http://www.deepsouthdish.com/2012/11/ground-beef-hobo-stew.html

We always get 1/2 a beef and that lasts our family right at a year.  But we always cook up the steaks and the roasts and then are left over with tons of ground beef.  I noticed my steak shelf looking rather thin the other day while the ground beef shelf of the freezer is still mighty full.  Why can't someone raise a cow that has only prime cuts of meat...seriously...I would pay for that!

So, I went on a Pinterest mission to look for new ground beef recipes.  I found a few new ones and this was the first one we tried.   It was good and the left overs were also good.  I froze about half of it and I think that will also heat up to be tasty.  A couple things I did differently than the recipe.

1.  I did not add the flour until right before we were ready to eat.  I prefer to thicken things about 20 minutes before I serve it so I just mixed up flour and water in a cup and poured in into the stew until it was the thickness I wanted.

2.  I did not add the green beans until 30 minutes before we were ready to eat.  I hate over cooked green beans and since I only had frozen ones, they only take 20-30 minutes to cook.

I served this with fresh homemade biscuits...I should share that recipe sometime too...maybe when I have more time.

I don't have any pictures since I just started this blog tonight, but I will for my next post. Does that also make me pathetic: that I am going to be taking pictures of stuff we cook?   Enjoy!